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Use That CMS for Better CRM

"Ultra-Web-savvy marketers are doing great experiments with social-networking platforms, community forums, and the like," says AJ Harring in a recent article at MarketingProfs. But there's one hitch: Few of their efforts are interconnected in a meaningful way to boost customer engagement at their websites, he argues.

A few companies are getting it right, he writes. Adidas and Red Bull, for example, are using CRM techniques to turn "passive" websites into "dynamic, personalized Web experiences."

So, how are they doing it? They're using new technology to "embed Web 2.0 and community functionality within their sites," Harring says. And the key to it all, he says, is "a state-of-the-art content management system."

He offers some tips for using a Web 2.0-level CMS to boost your online CRM. Among his suggestions:

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This is a very timely article indeed that can be expanded on greatly. There are CMS that have fantastic social media modules available, some that allow for lead scoring even with CRM platform integration... CMS can make big impact on your website's SEO. And if your CMS platform is custom designed by in-house technical staff that are not privy to the perspective of the non-techie content editors, you could run into trouble with how well staff are at keeping the website up-to-date v. how long it takes them to edit. I love this topic...it is probably one of my favorite marketing topics. I'm a marketing consultant at http://www.oshyn.com (which is a CMS consultant and website developer - brands like Miramax, GeekSquad, Intent.com) and I am constantly talking to our IT team from my marketing perspective. I'd love to answer any questions! you can also ping me on Twitter @kimberlymccabe or @Oshyn_Inc but I think it would be great to comment here for the sake of everyone reading.

Go one step further and get rid of the gap between your website and your CRM. If you spend all of that time gathering client information, why not connect them directly to your internal processes. With Salesforce.com and OrchestraCMS, the web is no longer an island unto itself or connected through expensive middleware. Web 3.0?

OrchestraCMS runs on top of the Force.com platform as a 100% native application, rather than integrating with it as a standalone product like SiteCore and others. As a result, it auto-discovers all of the content on the Force platform an allows it to be published seamlessly. It also allows information captured from the website to update any data object and auto-integrates with all business processes. It manages the content of the built in Salesforce Customer Portal and will do so with the remaining portals - self service, ideas, knowledge, partner etc. in the near future. It leverages Salesforce.com Sites functionality which provides worldwide caching, ISO 27001 security, fail over across 3 continents and seamless upgrades 3-4 times per year. There is also the ability to manage up to 25 websites in a single instance of Salesforce.com running OrchestraCMS. No hosting is required and the cost structure is about $5/site/month with Premier support. There is no client side software other than a web browser. It also leverages new platform features such as Salesforce Chatter as they are released. Perhaps most importantly, it was designed for the marketing department so that content can be managed by the people who create it. For more information, please check out http://www.orchestracms.comYou can also follow us @orchestracms Thanks for your interest!

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